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The Economic History of Modern Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

H. J. Habakkuk
H. J. Habakkuk
Affiliation:
Oxford University
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Extract

There is now a rough consensus of opinion among English economic historians about the broad chronology of English population history. According to this chronology there were three main phases of rapid growth. The first occurred in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and was brought to an end by a marked fall in population in the fourteenth century. The second phase occupied most of the sixteenth century and the early seventeendi, after which there was some slowing down in the later seventeenth century and possibly an absolute check in the 1720's and 1730's. And finally tliere was the sustained cumulative increase that started in the later eighteenth century.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , December 1958 , pp. 486 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1958

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References

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25 In 1953 I suggested that the fall in the death rate in the 1780's–or such fall as might remain after the imperfections of the statistics had been taken account of-might simply be due to a change in age composition because of an earlier rise in birth rates. This was an ill-considered suggestion since age at death varies so widely that only the effect of implausibly great changes in age composition would be perceptible.

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